EVENTS

The mysterious Tatsuya Ishida

He’s an invisible webcomic artist — here’s one of the rare interviews with the guy, and a review of his work. I’ve been following him for many years, and one of the interesting things you can see as he matured is that he’s gone from drawing pimp ninjas and geisha sluts to developing a very feminist sensibility.

Look at his latest, for instance — no words at all, but he still gets across regret at what patriarchal culture has done.

There’s been a striking transformation going on. I’d really like to hear in his own words what’s going on through his head…but his art seems to be doing a fine job of communicating.

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This is my absolutely my favorite comic strip of all time, that that isn’t just my favorite of Ishida’s. It makes me weepy, which is a statement about the sad state of affairs of women’s rights in our society.

Sinfest has changed noticeably over the years. Originally it was basically Slick’s sexual pursuit of Monique. Religion, good & evil, philosophy, American culture, and other topics were considered. Recently Ishida has been writing more and more about feminism and the patriarchy.

I’ve been reading Sinfest for years and years now, and while I do like the recent feminist bits for the most part, I’m still pretty uncomfortable with the lack of nuance (Which Ishida is usually pretty good at expressing if you pay attention to the details) that gets displayed in a lot of the anti-porn/anti-sex work segments. It’s pretty directly portrayed as ALWAYS BAD FOREVER, which, well, isn’t true in the real world. A few pages have even directly insinuated that sex-positive feminism is some sort of patriarchal dudebro plot.

Oh, today’s strip was beautiful. One thing I liked was that it read to me that the enforcer was showing Slick a choice: to be accepted as masculine and be free of the pit, he had to conform and support the system. If he didn’t, he’d be seen as feminized and tortured with the rest. It’s a small bit of progress for Slick, but it’s notable that he’s even aware of the problem and doesn’t bow the same way as the others.

Thanks for this, PZ; I’d long since given up on Sinfest back in the old days, when I got tired of his constant comforting of the comfortable and affliction of the afflicted. Nice to see he’s swapped sides on that.

When Ishida changed the tone and direction of the cartoon (mid-2011, IIRC), it took some getting used to. That’s not to say I entirely approved of the old tone, but it took quite a while for the new direction of the strip to show itself and become normal. I definitely prefer it the way it is now, not having to block out the sexist stuff to find it funny. Static characters get tiresome (e.g. “Peanuts”), any “Sinfest” strip from 2000 to 2010 could sit next to each other. Character development (e.g. “For Better Of Worse”) is more involving and interesting.

The only thing I never liked about the strip was his reuse of references to “The Matrix”. It was funny once, not so the second time – espeially when all three movies were out of theatres years before.

I’ve followed Sinfest for years, and his transformation from boobie-worshipping dude-bro to feminist very closely mirrors my own. I’ve seen a lot of die-hard fans who used to follow him (dare I say it) religiously, who hate the more recent comics (for obvious reasons). While there are a few points I strongly disagree with him on (his no-exceptions anti-porn stance for one, as mentioned elsewhere), for the most part I really like where he’s gotten to.

I take it a mark strongly in his favor that he does not take down the archives of all the old stuff that he is clearly ashamed of. Remembering how wrong you were in the past about very important things serves a two-fold purpose – it prevents you from taking your current stance for granted, and it reminds you that there may well be other subjects you are still just as wrong about.

I really like the way he is really sympathetic to all his characters while he may show them acting in a one dimensional way he will get into some depth at some point.
The other remarkable thing about the strip is its progression. As he actually confronts the situations and premises he started with. He lets the logic and his empathy find a truth he can embrace in fact. He and the strip grow.
I often find myself clicking on reload before the latest strip is posted!

A few pages have even directly insinuated that sex-positive feminism is some sort of patriarchal dudebro plot.

I wouldn’t say a plot by any means, but it’s no accident that a lot of sex-positive stuff becomes about satisfying liberal patriarchy, rather than focusing on women’s needs and wants, including about their own sexuality.

Mmm-hmm. I’d rather put it like this: when he started out, his shtick could be summed up as, “look at me, I’m being politically incorrect! Are you offended, women and minorities? Are you? Huh? Huh? Huh?” Over the years, he gradually moved away from that, and he has now fully transitioned into “look at me, I’m being politically correct! Are you offended, straight white men? Are you? Huh? Huh? Huh?”

That is, verily and forsooth, moral progress. But he’s still an ass. And also, I miss the time in the middle, when his characters had some humanity to them instead of being avatars and punching bags for one side or the other.

I’m also a bit amused by his anti-porn stance. Oh, I completely agree with him, I despise porn (never mind whether it is inherently anti-woman, it’s inherently anti-human-dignity!), but has he ever visited a feminist community? In my experience, feminists (with a few furiously shouted-down exceptions) tend to fall over themselves in their eagerness to express how pro-porn they are. And considering that his position is that the only reason one can possibly disagree with any feminist position is that you’re a worthless evil dude-bro, his, well… disagreement with a feminist position comes off as somewhat odd.

I love his comics.
One question regarding the one PZ posted.
I know the female symbol (circle with plus beneath) and the LGBT symbol (rainbow).
But what does the circle with the triangle symbol inside represent?

I used to follow Sinfest regularly years ago, and appreciated the humor and art, but fell away simply because it became repetitive. I didn’t feel any benefit from clicking the link — I’d have seen the joke before. If Ishida’s evolved that significantly, I’ll give him another look.

I really like his pen style and how he renders his characters. The content’s great, too, but I just adore his very distinctive graphical look (it vaguely reminds me of Stan Sakai’s equally wonderful Usagi Yojimbo)

It’s worth noting that they’ve got threads on the strip’s forum that are explicitly designed to mock the angry dudebros who, feeling betrayed by Ishida, come in to complain about Sinfest. I’m sure P.Z. can relate to that particular phenomenon.

While I’m really, really uncomfortable with his blanket anti-sex work/porn stance (because that petty much always tend toward misogyny) I do like seeing stuff that is well-drawn and anti-sexism and critical of rape culture, and porn tropes.